Modi factor will not work in Delhi polls, says Congress leader Arvinder Singh Lovely
New Delhi: The Congress party might have been reduced to 8 seats in Delhi assembly but it has not dampened the spirit and enthusiasm of Arvinder Singh Lovely, the party's new state president. Lovely is confident
Q: There have been demands from different state units that Priyanka Gandhi should take over the reins of party. What is your view on that? Is it time for Priyanka to step in?
Lovely: We have won two Lok Sabha elections, three assembly elections in Delhi, two assembly elections in Haryana, three assembly elections in Maharashtra. Just because we lost one Lok Sabha elections, it can't be said that our leadership is weak. Our leadership is very strong and even today crores of people of India have faith in the leadership of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are our leaders and all of us are behind them. As far as Priyanka Gandhi is concerned, it's for her to take a decision. And it's for the party high command to take a decision.
Q: There is a feeling in the Sikh community that the Congress government did nothing to punish the perpetrators of 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
Lovely: The NDA government was in power for five years and once again they are in power. Let's see what they are going to do. As far as Congress is concerned, the party has won 6 elections in Delhi – two Lok Sabha elections, three assembly elections and one Municipal election. It would not have been possible to win these elections if we had not received Sikh support. Congress has given maximum number of Sikh MLAs.
There can be no two views on the fact that those responsible for 1984 riots should be brought to justice. I'm hoping that Modi ji will provide justice to the victims. We have to remember the fact that there are three important organs in the country – judiciary, executive and legislature. And none of these three can interfere in each other's work. Congress has never interfered in judicial process. It's not only about 1984 riots; Congress has never shielded any of its leaders in corruption cases as well.
Q: If elections are held today, what will be the issues on which you will seek votes from Delhiites?
Lovely: We'll continue the development work that we had done in 15 years of our rule. We completely changed the face of Delhi, we regularized the unauthorized colonies but now it has been stopped, We had to give ownership to JJ (jhuggi-jhonpri) colonies but nothing is moving on that, We had made Delhi free of power-cuts and load-shedding but today there is outage of 5-6 hours, the same is the case with water, they had promised to make electricity and water cheaper but they are not even discussing it today. We'll go to people with all these issues.
One more thing, it's possible that some gaps, flaws might have been there during our 15 years rule but if we get the mandate again then we will offer a corruption free government. We'll regularize another 1500 colonies on the same pattern on which we had regularized 895 colonies. This government has stopped the Monorail project that we had initiated. We will resume Anna Shree programme. We wanted to make Delhi a world -class city and these are the issues on which we will seek votes in Delhi.
Q: You have confessed that some of your support base has moved away from Congress. What is your strategy to win them back?
Lovely: Congress stands with the truth. We'll go to the people with the truth. We'll tell them the reality. We'll ask them to compare our 15 years of rule with that of last 8 months. One rain in the entire season created such havoc that sisters could not reach their brothers' homes to tie Rakhi on their wrists. The PWD that functions directly under Home Ministry when there is no elected government could not manage that. What kind of governance is this?